Rahul Hi

Re # 4 - Naseer, to me is possibly the most versatile of Indian actors.

If the movie you talk about is Manthan, then Naseer was a Gujarati/Kathiawari villager. He was absolutely superb.

He was great in comedy in Jane Bhi do Yaaron.
As a pseudo intellectual film director in Bhumika.
As crazed, sadistic Policeman in Mirch Masala.
The heart-achingly sensitive blind principal in Sparsh.

And many more that slip my mind now.

Recently, I loved him in that simple movie - Iqbal, as a lost, ex drunk cricketer.

Man! This man is a genius.

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Rahul Hi

Re # 4 - Naseer, to me is possibly the most versatile of Indian actors.

If the movie you talk about is Manthan, then Naseer was a Gujarati/Kathiawari villager. He was absolutely superb.

He was great in comedy in Jane Bhi do Yaaron.
As a pseudo intellectual film director in Bhumika.
As crazed, sadistic Policeman in Mirch Masala.
The heart-achingly sensitive blind principal in Sparsh.

And many more that slip my mind now.

Recently, I loved him in that simple movie - Iqbal, as a lost, ex drunk cricketer.

Man! This man is a genius.

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I loved laurence olivier in his shakespearean roles esp Hamlet which i think was the best version of the play captured on film and his Heathcliff was pretty darn good as well but i’ve heard his greatness really showed on stage more than film same as Richard Burton. and its so bloody difficult to find a video or clips of them performing coz in those days they hardly ever filmed them on stage and when they did, the quality of the film is awful.

ashok kumar is prolly one of my all time favs. he’s prolly acted in about 50% of all my fav movies. and like most of my favs, i find it hard to be objective about him.

rahul - very nice )

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i think that laurence olivier was an excellent actor as well, especially in his shakespearean roles, but when you talk about versatility as his being different with each character, i can’t see that much in olivier. perhaps i haven’t seen enough to comment too much on it.

i think you did make all of that up rahul.

when i think of lead actor (hero, if we must term it) and character actor, i think of dadamoni (ashok kumar), and his transition from being the ’’lead’’ in the early bombay talkies and movies such as parineeta, bandini, howrah bridge, chalti ka naam gaaRi to being ’’character’’ actor (the jealous husband, the uncle or father), but as amrita says why make such a distinction. an actor acts his part, no matter how big or small.

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Alec Guiness was a wonderful actor. One of the best. Actually, I am reminded of another one, Lawrence Olivier.What do you guys think about him?

As for Naseer, he has played more leading roles than character ones.
Further to #8 . as for the distinction between the hero(lead actor) and character actor, the hero as seen in terms of popular movies is a romantic concept. He would be the protagonist with a strong personality some ideal qualities and would resolve a conflict.But if the story is not a romance , then the hero is just another chracter, and the lead actor is just another character actor.
(Probably I made all this up ) )

So, are we looking for, the most vesatile romantic lead actor?

Among current Hollywood actors, my favorite is Ed Norton. Its a pity that acting doesnt interest him much, apparently.

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amrita ~ i did know that ’’lion in winter’’ was his first movie. that version (not the remake) is one of my all-time favorite ultra-dysfunctional family movies! i think it may have been timothy dalton’s first as well.

on alec guinness-- i told someone, either my mother or my best friend, both who are quite familiar with ag that he played king faisal in lawrence of arabia and they were amazed. i guess that’s how immersed he was in character. they didn’t recognize him as faisal. i wish i’d seen him play smiley in the john le carre’ series (on public television in the 70’s or 80’s) but i wasn’t too impressed with him as godbole in a passage to india. i wasn’t all that impressed with passage to india period.

and alec guinness has acted in most if not all of david lean’s movies almost from the very first movie that lean directed. lean made oliver twist oh sometime in the 40’s or 50’s and if memory serves me correctly, alec guinness played the role of fagin. had a hook nose just as nasty as anthony quinn’s in loa. talk about stereotypes!

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Robin Williams is versatile enough to play a hero, villian, character actor.
Saif Khan is proving to be quite versatile in Bollywood, in fact I think he is better than the ham - Sharukh.

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re #8
Some of Alec Guinness’ well known movies (not necessarily well-known for his acting)
StarWars (the original 3... he is the original Obi Wan Kenobi)
Lawrence of Arabia
Doctor Zhivago

Kind Hearts and Coronets is known for his acting skills (somewhat like Sanjeev Kumar’s nine-roled movie). Other movies wherein he is supposed to have acted very well were The Lavender Hill Mob and The Horse’s Mouth.

I guess your original question was not on greatness of acting, but on versatility and Guinness is widely regarded as one of the most versatile actors whose real self was not known at all.

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simon - i really dont like the whole character vs. hero actor. when you say ’’hero’’ - and this might be a desi thing - i’m thinking of someone like SRK or Tom Cruise... the choco baby who makes the moolah for whichever rich uncle is producing the movie. when you say character artiste i’m thinking johnny lever or william h macy.... that guy who’s always That Guy in all the movies you’ve seen over a period of time.

i much prefer ’’actor’’ because thats a person who acts - small role, big role whatever role. and hopefully he does it well. which is why naseer and hopkins are so hard to define as hero or character artiste.

ana - did you know the lion in winter was his movie debut? :O that was an awestruck smiley not an aghast one. remains of the day was one hell of a movie. i heart merchant ivory.

simon - alec guinness did some pretty quirky characters. one of his more famous movies was laurence of arabia.

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Hmm, maybe there are is not a single, but two seperate questions and set
of answers here, which frankly I didn’t anticipate. The versatile hero and
the character actor:

1. The ability of an actor to immerse him/herself in a character, to such
an extent, as to transcend his own personality (Like Charlize Theron did
in Monster ?)

2. The ability to pull-off a wide range of leading roles, spanning different
genres: drama, comedy, action, romance, etc.

The responsibilities and obligations of a leading actor may be more de-
manding than that of a character actor, like Hopkins, for example. If you
see his earlier works (The Elephant Man and Gaslight), he is the same
intense, hard-driving, willful man, as he is in Hannibal. Atleast, that’s my
impression, after having seen him play Dr. Lecter and then going back
to see his initial work. *brr*

Maybe that’s why there have been so many fabulous character actors
around, and so few versatile leading actors.

Should we put the fabulous Naseeruddin Shah in the catagory of the
character actor, or leading actor ?. Or could you be both ?. Like Theron
in Monster and Hillary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry.

#5 Somebody described acting as ’’Standing naked on stage and turning’’.
I think it’s very difficult, if done honestly and earnestly. They say Meryl
Streep is the best. It’s like that’s a given. I don’t know which performance
they are basing this on. I liked Ali McGraw in the original Love Story.

#6 Alec Guinness of the Bridge on River Kwai fame ?. Really ?. Can
you recommend any other movies of his mastram2 ?.

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Peter Sellers and Alec Guinness(sp?) in English movies.
Naseer and Sanjeev Kumar in hindi movies.

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i agree with rahul on naseer. the naseer of ’’hero hiralal’’ for example, completely different from his other comic roles. he is different in all the movies i’ve seen of his.

anthony hopkins. . . . man, what range, from playing a homosexual prince in ’’the lion in winter’’ to stevens the butler in, amrita, help me out, oh, okay, ’’the remains of the day’’ to his role as an african-american professor passing for white in ’’the human stain’’, to of course hannibal lecter. and everything in between. . . but ’’the remains of the day’’ will remain an anthony hopkins favorite. i’ve never been able to watch ’’silence of the lambs’’ in its entirety.

i’m trying to think of women. . . . perhaps vanessa redgrave? meryl streep? sophia loren?

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IMHO and from what I have seen, no one can beat Naseeruddin Shah when it comes to range. His roles cannot be classified as just different emotions or rasas, like comedy ,tragedy etc. Rather he provides a completely different person for each of his movies he worked in, in the parallel cinema era in india. I think by sheer volume of his quality work, he dwarfs everyone else that I know of.If I come to it, I think I can name 20 movies with 20 different Naseers.
In fact, he is so amazing that one would not be able to appreciate his acting if one watches him for the first time. I remember in one of his earlier movies, he played a villager from Hyderabad.I think it was ’’manthan’’. Most of us thought that the unit had employed a local villager to do the part.

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thats a toughie coz there are some things you cant change like your eyes for example which tend to retain expressions so you get the feeling this is the same character again and again.

anthony hopkins is prolly the best candidate. also daniel day lewis. balraj sahni tends to be remembered as one type but let’s not forget he did do bigha zameen and kabuliwala as well as waqt and seema. boman irani in the current crop has tremendous range i think.

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Ben Kingsley: Gandhi, Sexy Beast, House of Sand & Fog
Anthony Hopkins: Silence Series, The Edge,
Sean Penn: the Game, Mystic River, Dead man walking, i am sam

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You can include Bollywood, Lollywood or any foreign cinema personality
in the pool (if HW won’t do). Try and give examples of movies s/he has
been in, to earn your esteem.

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